Gladiolus hybrid plant ‘Grace’

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a novel hybrid plant named ‘Grace’ and belonging to the family Iridaceae said plant is a cross between two gladiolus varieties, ‘Her Majesty’ and ‘Snow Princess’ and is an ornamental plant widely cultivated for beautiful flowers which are of commercial and export value, further said plant is propagated vegetatively by corms and hence can be maintained as a stable genotype.

GENUS AND SPECIES OF THE PLANT CLAIMED AND VARIETY DENOMINATION

The present invention relates to a novel Gladiolus hybrid sp. varietynamed ‘Grace’. This variety belongs to the family Iridaceae, genusGladiolus L, and species Gladiolus sp. (Gladiolus hybrid). The novelplant being a hybrid, has been developed in a breeding programme. Thenovel plant ‘Grace’ is propagated vegetatively by corms and hence can bemaintained as a stable genotype. The plant of the invention is a crossbetween two gladiolus varieties, ‘Her Majesty’ (unpatented) and ‘SnowPrincess’ (unpatented) and is an ornamental plant widely cultivated forbeautiful flowers which are of commercial and export value.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Gladiolus is a herbaceous bulbous plant grown for its beautiful flowersof different colour, shades and shapes throughout the world. Gladiolusbelongs to the Family Iridaceae, Order Liliales and Class Monocotyledon.

Gladiolus is one of the important cut flowers throughout the world. Thecommercial cultivation is wide spread in temperate, tropical andsubtropical climates. The demand of new varieties with better colour,quality flowers, and planting materials is always existing in thefloriculture trade.

The modern garden cultivators gladiolus come from diverse geneticparentages. It has cumulative heterozygosity for many charactersinherent with complex genetic constitution. In gladiolus, diverseparents are crossed together and the cultivars and the species thatdiffer widely in chromosome numbers are also cross-fertile. In thepresent invention, the desirable strains obtained in F₁ generation wereperpetuated vegetatively without being segregated in the followinggenerations, so that the cultivars which are available today may be F₂,F₃ to F₈ or so of a particular cross further blended with some extraparents at nearly every generation. Thus they are not allowed tosegregate freely in further generations because it is desirable to growthe plants asexually. Because of this reason, now the available moderncultivars have become so complex that the offspring obtained by crossingthem, even two seedlings, do not appear similar [(Misra, 1975) GladiolusBr. Assn. Newsletter, No. 12, pp. 2-5].

The Applicants collected germplasm of different cultivars and hybridvarieties of gladiolus from National Botanical Research InstituteLucknow, India as per the list of gladiolus cultivars grown in India anddescribed in the bulletin of ‘gladiolus’ Economic Botany InformationService by Sharma et al. published by the Director National BotanicalResearch Institute Lucknow, 1988. Germplasm of gladiolus was alsocollected from Netherlands in 1991 and various nurseries of Kalimpong,Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. The record of the collected germplasm ofgladiolus was maintained in the accession register of the FloricultureDivision of the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT),Palampur, India.

The applicants initiated a breeding program to develop better types ofgladiolus hybrids suitable to wide range of climatic conditions, andhaving wide range of characteristics such as better colour, increasednumber of florets and spike length as per the international standards,better yield of corms and cormels, tolerant to the common diseases etc.The collected germplasm of gladiolus was planted in the experimentalfield of IHBT for their propagation and multiplication. In this breedingprogramme conventional breeding method (hybridization) was used. Morethan 100 cross combinations were made by using distinct varieties suchas ‘Oscar’ (unpatented), ‘Jester’ (unpatented), ‘Snow Princess’(unpatented), ‘Eurovision’ (unpatented), ‘Ballerina’ (unpatented), ‘KingLiar’ (unpatented), ‘Cherry Blossom’ (unpatented), ‘Her Majesty’(unpatented), ‘Green woodpecker’ (unpatented), ‘Friendship’(unpatented), ‘Vink's Glory’ (unpatented), ‘Aldebaran’ (unpatented),‘Red Beauty’ (unpatented), ‘Top Brass’ (unpatented), ‘Copper King’(unpatented), ‘Bonfire’ (unpatented), ‘White Goddess’ (unpatented),‘Sunny Boy’ (unpatented), ‘Tropic Sea’ (unpatented), and ‘FriendshipPink’ (unpatented), etc.

Color description of some of the parentage as described in NAGCBulletin.

‘Oscar’—Turkey red, throat blotched sulphur yellow.

‘Green Woodpecker’—Pea Green, throat blotched pea green spotted rubyred.

‘Eurovision’—Signal red, throat streaked pea green.

‘Friendship Pink’—Dawn Pink, throat blotched pea green having splashesruby red.

‘Aldebaran’—Straw Yellow and throat bloched signal red.

‘Friendship’—Clear pink with yellow throat.

‘Jester’—Ruffled, deep Yellow petals and bright red blotches.

‘Her Majesty’—Ruffled, Blue violet with darker edges and white throat.

‘Snow Princess’—White.

‘Eurovision’—Light Vermillion with white veins.

‘Purple King’—Purple, rich in colour with white picottee edges, whitemarks deeper in the throat.

These parentage plants are grown in India for more than 25 years.Details regarding these plants have been published and these plants areavailable to the public. The Applicants herewith enclose a few documentsthat shows that the parentage plants are well known and are available tothe public.

As the aim is the production of seed of known parentage, emasculation infirst three flowers in a selected spike is done before the opening ofthe flowers and stigma becomes receptive. Anthers are removed carefullyfrom each flower. Emasculated flowers were covered with butter paperbags used for breeding purposes. Pollination was done in the emasculatedflowers next day morning with in 24-30 hours with the pollens of thedesired parents in the month of April-May 1992. The seeds were collectedfrom mature pods in the month of July-August, 1992 and were sown in bedsunder open field conditions and covered with dry grasses for moisturepreservation in December 1992. The resultant seedlings were spaceplanted in the field at Palampur in March-April 1993.

Many seedlings came out from a single cross combination. These plantswere critically evaluated and tagged as per the desired colourcombinations, growth and flowering parameters. The corn and cormels ofthe selected hybrid plants were replanted continuously four years in thefiled for further evaluation and multiplications. Based on the superiorperformance for attractive colour combination, compactness of flowerspike, number of flowers per spike, length of flower spike, Number ofcorm and cormels per plant evaluation and selection of superior qualityhybrids were made.

Thus, the breeding program involved hybridisation of commonly availablegladiolus plants. In other words, the hybrids were developed by crossingparental genotypes involving sexual hybridization in the breedingprogramme.

The program yielded a number of hybrid plants out of which one genotypenamely IHBT-GH-184 was selected and christened as ‘Grace’. The novelplant is the hybrid between the gladiolus plants ‘Her Majesty’ and ‘SnowPrincess’. This plant was found to have new colour, flower size, numberof florets per spikes, length of flower spikes, better yield of corm andcormels and less prone to common diseases. Growing the plant on acommercial scale offers the horticulturists an improved and new variety,which can be commercially cultivated.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a new gladiolusgenotype christened as ‘Grace’.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a photograph of field grown flower spike of IHBT-GH-184(‘Grace’) depicting decorative type flowers of Salmon Color (RHS-27B)with Poppy Red (RHS-40D) colour at the edges of the petals. The flowerpetals are lightly ruffled with whitish stripe on center of the petals.The illustrated flower spike is from a generation of the variety grownin 1992. The plant giving rise to this flower spike was grown under openfield conditions in Palampur area of Himachal Pradesh. Palampur is at1300 m above main sea level, which comes under sub-humid, sub-temperatezone and having average maximum and minimum temperature of 30° C. and10° C., respectively. The average annual rainfall is approximately 250cm.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

Thus, the invention provides a new genotype christened as ‘Grace’. Thisplant has been developed through planned breeding experiments conductedat Institute of Himalayan Resources, (IHBT) Palampur, Himachal Pradesh,India with defined aim to develop superior gladiolus genotypes. For thispurpose, gladiolus varieties were collected from different sources andgrown in the fields at Palampur, India for facilitating breedingprogram. The emasculation and pollination in different varieties werecarried out during the months of April-May 1992. The seeds werecollected in July-August 1992 and sown in beds under open fieldconditions and covered with dry grasses in December 1992. The resultantseedlings were space planted in the field at Palampur in March-April1993. The corms and cormels of surviving hybrid plants were replantedcontinuously four years for screening and multiplication.

Based on the superior performance for attractive colour combination,compactness of flower spikes, number of flowers per spikes, length offlower spikes, number of flowers remaining open at a time, number ofcorm and cormel production per plant, the plant of this invention(IHBT-GH-184) was selected for further observation and evaluation.

Considering the superior characteristics like excellent colour, numberof flowers, compactness of flower spikes, plant height, ruffled-ness offlower petals, regeneration potential and freedom from common diseases,it was asexually reproduced through corm and cormels to maintain purity.

The selected hybrid IHBT-GH-184 was christened as ‘Grace’ and grown atrow distance of 30 cm and plant to plant distance of 15 cm for fourconsecutive years to study its growth and flowering performance andmultiplication. Data were recorded on randomly selected twenty plantsevery year. The hybrid IHBT-GH-184 maintained uniformity in its growthand flowering performance.

Evidence of Uniformity and Stability

The hybrid IHBT-GH-184 has remained stable and uniform for itsmorphological characters and showed consistency in performance forvarious growth and flowering parameters during its evaluation andvegetative multiplication since 1993. Throughout the evaluation periodof IHBT-GH-184 no variants were found from the normal population.

The genotype IHBT-GH-184 possesses standard bi color decorative typeflowers of Salmon Color (RHS-27B) with Poppy Red (RHS-40D) colour at theedges of the petals. The flower petals are lightly ruffled with whitishstripe on center of the petals which is quite clear from FIG. 1.

The genotype IHBT-GH-164 is distinct in regeneration potential.

The plant of invention ‘Grace’ is thus a new and distinct hybrid plant,having the following combination of characters:

(a) Type: Standard.

(b) Days to flower: 98 days.

(c) Number of spikes/plant: 1.81.

(d) Length of the flower spike: 140 cm.

(e) Number of flowers/spike: 18.4.

(f) Flower colour: Salmon color (RHS-27B) with Poppy Red (RHS-40D)colour on petal's edges and Lip petal Chartreuse Yellow (RHS-20D).

(g) Type of petals: Petals lightly ruffled with whitish stripe on centerof the petals.

(h) Number of flowers remains open at a time: 6.80.

(i) Longevity of the 1^(st) flower: 2.75 days.

(j) Diameter of 1^(st) flower: 11.7 cm.

(k) Longevity of the spike: 10.6 days.

(l) Number of corms/plant 2.45.

(m) Diameter of corms: 6.42 cm.

(n) Number of cormels/plant 39.9.

Objective Description of the Genotype ‘Grace’

The following is an objective description of the new variey:

1. Genus: Gladiolus.

2. Species: Hybrid sp.

3. Family: Iridacae.

4. Order: Liliales.

5. Class: Monocotyledon.

6. Common name: Gladiolus/Sword Lily.

7. Plant height: 159 cm.

8. Growth habit: Erect, uniform.

9. Stem diameter: 1.11 cm.

10. Number of leaves/plant: 7.87.

11. Height of leaves: 71.2 cm.

12. First flowering: 98 days.

13. Type of flowers: Standard.

14. Number of spikes/plant: 1.81.

15. Length of the flower spike: 140 cm.

16. Number of flowers/spike: 18.4.

17. Flower color: Salmon color (RHS-27B) with Poppy Red (RHS-40D) coloron petal's edges and Lip petal Chartreuse Yellow (RHS-20D).

18. Type of petals: Petals lightly ruffled with whitish stripe on centerof the petals.

19. Number of flowers remains open at a time: 6.80.

20. Longevity of the 1^(st) flower: 2.75 days.

21. Diameter of 1^(st) flower: 11.7 cm.

22. Longevity of the spike: 10.6 days.

23. Number of corms/plant: 2.45.

24. Diameter of corms: 6.42 cm.

25. Number of cormels/plant: 39.9.

26. Growing conditions: The plants are grown at open sunny sites and canbe grown in a wide variety of soils. However, they require deep,well-drained sandy loam soils having pH around 6.0 to 7.0 for propergrowth and flowering.

27. Temperatures: The day temperature could be between 15° C. to 20° C.

28. Leaves: In a mature plant, leaves are attached to the stem inopposite fashion and have dark green color.

29. Number of leaves: 5 to 9.

30. Shape of the leaves: The leaves are sword-shaped phyllode,clustering at the swollen stem base, equivalent in 2-ranks, prominentlyribbed, radical and cauline.

31. Description of reproductive parts: Flowers 2-whorled with sixperianth segments, attached to a funnel-shaped cup shaping into a bentfloraltube, hermaphrodite, trimerous, irregular, medianly zygomorphic,sessile and often protandrous and epigynous, born to one side on asimple or branched inflorescence subtended by two lanceolate, leaf-likevalves. The flower is somewhat tubular and possesses six, colouredperianth segments (sepals and petals together), arranged in two whorls.The inflorescence is a spike, with the flowers arranged on the centralaxis in a single or two rowed symmetrical display, progressing from baseto tip. Stamens 3, placed opposite to the outer whorl of the petals,extrose, epiphyllous, inserted below throat, bithecous, dehiscing byvertical slits, filaments distinct and basifixed. Gynoeciumtricarpellary and syncarpous, having inferior ovary with axileplacementation; style long, slender and simple with typically hinge-likecreased trifid stigma and petaloid.

32. Fruits and seeds: Fruits oblong-ellipsoid to obtusely triangular,loculicidal capsule with 3 chambers each having 2 rows mostly withwinged seeds.

33. Fragrance: No Fragrance.

34. Mode of reproduction: Vegetatively by corms and cormels.

The variety ‘Grace’ can be characterized by its stem colour. The colourof the exposed inter node, below the 1^(st) flower is closet to LettuceGreen (RHS-144 A). The rest of the stem covered with leave sheath isScheele's Green (RHS-144 B).

The variety ‘Grace’ can be characterized by its leaves. The leaves of‘Grace’ are numerous, cauline, sheathed at the base, and alternatelyoverlapped. The blades are narrow, linear, lanceolate, mostly swordshaped. For example, some are narrow—linear, 35.2-107.2 cm (averagelength 76.69 cm) long, width 2.7-4.6 cm (average 3.43 cm). The leaveshave a base that is narrow, apex generally acute sometimes acuminate.The leaves have venation that is parallel with ribs that are strong andfibrous. The colour of the blade is green (RHS-137C). The margin israised, fibrous, and both surfaces are glabrous—smooth, and scabrid dueto strong venation.

The variety ‘Grace’ can be characterized by its perianth. The perianthis petaloid with 6 tepals (3+3) arranged in two whorls. It ispolyphyllous, shortly stalked. Its base is narrow, oblong, andoblanceolate. Its apex is round, obtuse. Its margin is entire andoblique. Its midrib is pale-white, prominent, 3-5×5-7.5 cm. It hasimbricate aestivation.

The variety ‘Grace’ can be charaterized by its bud size and colour. Thecolour of flower bud is Barium Yellow (RHS-10 A). Buds are 6.10 cm to7.20 cm long (bottom 3 buds were taken) and the average size 6.68 cmlong. The diameter of the lower 3 buds ranging from 1.16 cm to 1.39 cmand the average of 20 buds is 1.28 cm.

The variety ‘Grace’ can be characterized by its reproductive organs. Forexample, it can be characterized by its androecium. The androeciumincludes 3 stamens, rarely 4, which are triandrous or occasionallytetrandrous, epiphyllous, and arranged in a whorl. It can be shorterthan the tepals. It includes filaments that are pale-white and about 3.5cm long. The anthers are bibbed, dithecous, pale-violet, about 1.5 cmlong, extrose, and basifixed.

The variety ‘Grace’ can be characterized by its gynoecium. The gynoeciumcan have an ovary that is inferior, tricarpellary, syncarpus,trilocular, with ovules that are numerous in each locule. It includesaxile placentation, style terminal, filiform, almost equivalent tostamens, c 6 0 cm long. The stigma is trilobed and petaloid, with eachlobe stalked, folded, pale-white, wavy, and about 3 mm long.

The variety ‘Grace’ can be characterized by its plant disease resistanceand susceptibility. Some incidence of Fusarium rot was noticed in thefield as well as in the storage. This may be due to the high rainfallduring the crop development period, because crop remains in the fieldduring monsoon. But this variety ‘Grace’ performed better than ‘HerMajesty’, one of its parent and many other gladiolus varieties such as‘Hunting Song’, ‘Fidelio’, ‘Oscar’, ‘Red Beauty’, etc., in this regionin respect of disease incidence.

This hybrid ‘Grace’ produces 2.45 corm and 40 cormels per plant, whichrepresents improved multiplication rate compared to previously knownvarieties.

As in gladiolus plants, the diameter of flowers and ruffledness ofpetals are considered for its classification, the Applicants have giventhe same while describing the shape and dimensions of the petals.

The hybrid was raised through conventional method of breeding. Seedsproduced by hybridization of different parents were sown in the field toraise hybrid plants. After considering quality parameters some of thepromising plants were selected for further multiplication. In the secondyear onwards, selected hybrids were multiplied and maintainedvegetatively by corm and cormels. After hybridization, the hybrids aremultiplied vegetatively since 1992.

The colour specifications of the flower parts distinguishing ‘Grace’from others within the same botanical and market class have beenincorporated according to R.H.S. Colour Chart published by The RoyalHorticultural Society, 80 Vincent Square, London S WIP 2PE, 1995. R.H.S.Colour Chart is an internationally accepted color chart foridentifying/referring colors of plants or plant parts. Thedistinguishing characteristics are compared with other varieties of samebotanical and market class emphasizes the distinctiveness of ‘Grace’.

The hybrid is a cross between two gladiolus varieties, ‘Her Majesty’ and‘Snow Princess’. Both ‘Her Majesty’ and ‘Snow Princess’ are of the genusGladiolus L and species Gladiolus sp. (Gladiolus Hybrid). Neither of theparent varieties are patented. ‘Her Majesty’ was used as female and‘Snow Princess’ as male to create the hybrid ‘Grace’. ‘Grace’ isdistinct from its parents. For example, ‘Snow Princess’ has white colourflowers. ‘Her Majesty’ has ruffled petals that are blue violet colourwith darker edges and white throat. In contrast, ‘Grace’ has Salmon(RHS-27B) flowers with Poppy Red (RHS-40D) colour on petal edges andChartreuse Yellow (RHS-2D) on lip petal.

The genotype IHBT-GH-184 (‘Grace’) was bred at the Institute ofHimalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) under the programme ofdevelopment of new varieties of gladiolus.

The present invention includes the novel and distinct gladiolus plantchristened as ‘Grace’ characterized by the following combination ofcharacteristics:

(a) The hybrid is a cross between two gladiolus varieties, ‘Her Majesty’and ‘Snow Princess’.

(b) The hybrid having Standard type of flowers.

(c) The hybrid having flowers of Salmon color (RHS-27B) with Poppy Red(RHS-40D) color at the edges of the petals. Lip petal Chartreuse Yellow(RHS-2D).

(d) The hybrid having lightly ruffled petals with whitish stripe at thecenter.

(e) The hybrid takes 98 days to flower.

(f) The average number of flower spikes/plant is 1.81.

(g) The average length of flower spikes is 140 cm.

(h) The average number of flowers per spikes is 18.4.

Gladiolus varieties ‘Palampur Delight’, ‘Saint’, and ‘Palampur Pride’are described in copending patent applications with Ser. Nos.10/106,150, 10/106,085, and 10/106,300, respectively, each of which isincorporated herein by reference. These varieties differ from ‘Grace’ innumerous aspects including flower color. For example, ‘Palampur Delight’has Rose Purple (RHS-75D) flowers with Fuchsia Purple (RHS-67A) colourat the edges of the petals and Greenish White (RHS-157D) lip petal. ‘TheSaint’ has Shrimp Red (RHS-33C) flowers with Vermilion (RHS-41A) colouron center of the lip petals. ‘Palampur Pride’ has Primerose Yellow(RHS-4D) flowers with Fuchsia Purple (RHS-67A) tinge on petals edges anda lip petal that is Barium Yellow (RHS-10C) with magenta (RHS-66C)lines. These several varieties differ in numerous other characteristics.The different characteristics can readily be determined by reading eachof the patent applications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and disticnt gladiolus plant called ‘Grace’and substantially as